It’s impossible to explain to someone who’s never had suicidal thoughts what it feels like to be in a space where the only option you think you have to end your suffering is death.
Tag: Features
"Little Woods" Explores Family Bonds, Poverty, and Opioids in Small-Town America
“I hadn’t set out to make a political film but my personal point of view about what’s happening right now is horrifying. I mean whatever way we’re dealing with the opiate crisis, it isn’t working.”
"I Want You to Want to Live": Jody Betty's Viral Love Letter to People Contemplating Suicide
“I know the things I want to hear when I am suicidal and I think that if my words can reach even one person in their moment of crisis, then sharing my pain was worth it.”
Are the 12 Steps Safe for Trauma Survivors?
When the 4th and 5th steps are done without support for the symptoms of PTSD, they have the potential to retraumatize.
Marijuana as Harm Reduction: Chip Z'Nuff on the Medical Promise of Cannabis
The movement was a pro-pot culture crusade—a coming out for stoners in the entertainment industry that had everything to do with harm reduction principles.
"Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool" Connects Jim Crow Oppression to Davis' Heroin Addiction
Miles Davis’ heroin addiction and alcoholism are all well known and well documented. However, Nelson frames this period as resulting from Davis’ return to a reality in which he was not wanted but his music was.
Dear AA, We Need to Talk
You weren’t straight up so now we’re on the rocks.
5 Lessons from 5 Years of Sobriety
When I reflect on this choice I’ve made every day for five years, I realize sobriety is a limitless resource, readily available for anyone who needs it. I won’t run out of sobriety one day if someone else becomes sober. I won’t run out if 500,000 people become sober.
Radical Sobriety: Getting (and Staying) Clean and Sober as Subversive Activity
Alcoholism has medical, economic, and social implications, none of which actually serve any kind of bohemian or utopian yearning, but deceive the sufferer into believing that they do.
Am I Still in AA If I'm Not Going to Meetings?
After years in recovery, certain aspects of the program may no longer be useful while others are. That doesn’t mean you have to completely shut the door.